Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1100404
(To note: the State House did double duty as a location in this film: its exterior stood in as a replica for the Lincoln White House.) Farther afield, ree for the Road (1987), a brainless comedy starring Charlie Sheen as a Senate staffer, uses a credit sequence showing Sheen gunning his motorcycle towards what looks to be the U.S. Capitol—but some- thing is off: the building has an slightly elongated dome and has a glass high-rise on its le. It is actually the State Capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas! Similarly, for Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde (2003), a Reese Witherspoon vehicle in which she plays a congressional aide, much of the filming was done in Utah, using the State Capitol in Salt Lake City as a stand-in. Specifically, the production used the build- ing's House chamber, which appears far too small on screen. In another goof, each House member also had an individual desk, a perk which is only available in the real Senate. Restricted access to the Capitol area jurisdiction means that movie companies have to improvise when it comes to presenting congressional buildings, too. In the 1985 Tom Hanks comedy, e Man with One Red Shoe, the protagonist and his girlfriend are supposed to be hurrying to a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, but they are running up the grand southern steps of the National Gallery of Arts's classic West Wing. e Gal- lery is nowhere near the congressional office buildings. e director does get what he wants, however: a back- ground shot of the shiny Capitol Dome six blocks away! Another judicious stand-in appears in the Eddie Murphy farce The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) about an accidental legislator (fig. 7). Mur- phy plays Rep. Johnson, who, when shown coming to a "House Office Building," is actually entering the—just as impressive—Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles. 13 Filmmakers use what they can to achieve a con- gressional feel (fig. 8). e suspense drama State of Play (2009) found sundry stand-ins for Hill scenes that were physically out of bounds. One shot shows a Rep. Collins (Ben Affleck) coming down the steps of the Library of Congress' Jefferson Building, which is clearly standing in for a House Office Building. Later, when Collins heads to his "office," he instead runs into the impressive front of the Mellon Auditorium at 1301 Constitution Ave., NW (it carries a prop sign marked "Cannon" to refer to the oldest of the House Office Buildings). Finally, when a journalist friend is seen quizzing Collins in an "official" colonnade supposedly on the Hill, they are actually Fig. 7. e cynical film poster for the Eddie Murphy farce, e Distinguished Gentleman, typifies a long-standing and typical Hollywood pessimism about Congress—and the Capitol itself—as a "honey pot" for payoffs and gra by scheming politicians (1992). Fig. 6. A spirited House debate in Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln is plausibly recreated in Richmond, Virginia's House of Delegates, which has served as a frequent stand- in for the Capitol (2012). THE CAPITOL DOME 8